The P&P3 Daily News Roundup Meets the Mummy
Since we have several P&P3 news items to pass on tonight, we’ve gone back to our mass-reporting format, produced with as much effort and probably more literary merit than your average Saturday afternoon creature feature. And you’ll never find a zipper on OUR costumes.
Alert Janeite Allison from Pittsburgh wrote to tell us that there is an article about the P&P3 costumes in the gihugic September U.S. Vogue, a piece probably planned before the release date switch. 
Allison provided an excellent synopsis, which we hope she will not mind us quoting in full, as it is snarkily delicious:
The article starting on page 240 is titled, “The Empire Strikes Back.” The headline continues, “If you have a taste for historical costume dramas and love to see grand-scale dresses up there on the screen, the best place to look is usually a romance based on a novel by Jane Austen.” The article continues–”The book was a witty masterpiece, and those who enjoy wallowing [sic] in the spectacle of British nobility as seen through the lens of Hollywood will certainly enjoy the settings and costumes.”
Well, that’s ok, I can wallow with the best of them, but wait!
The “Life With Andre” column continues by noticing that rather than using the Empire [hence witty headline] fashions of 1813, when P&P was published, the costumer designer moved back to “homespun” dresses of 1797. Pictures show the rococo glories of the Heaven Room at Burghley House, which is used as the scene setting for when, according to M. Andre, Lady Catherine high-handedly sweeps up in her “grand Continental habit after the entire household has gone to bed, and wakes Mr. Bennet (Donald Sutherland) and his entire brood so she can insult them; she wears an armorial splendor of satin and boned taffeta.” M. Andre end by noting that the Empire dresses by Joe Wright are ho-hum, but the locations are a major fashion statement.
Mr. Bennet at Rosings? How, er, cozy.
The Telegraph has a profile of Brenda Blethyn, which has a bit about P&P3:
This month, her own profile will be raised as she is about to be seen in two meaty roles. No prizes for guessing whose doe-eyes will dominate the posters for the new film of Pride and Prejudice. They will be those of Keira Knightley, the sylph du jour, who plays Lizzie Bennett in Joe Wright’s version of Jane Austen’s best-loved work. When the awards are being doled out, however, my bet is that the prizes will go to the woman playing her embarrassing mother.
Mrs Bennett is not usually a sympathetic part. She thrusts her children at marriageable men with a delicious lack of subtlety but, on screen and off, Blethyn rises to her defence. “I’ve always thought she had a real problem and shouldn’t be made fun of. She’s pushy with a reason. As soon as Mr Bennett dies, all the money goes down the male line; she has to save her daughters from penury.”
Wouldn’t want them to STARVE IN THE HEDGEROWS!! like poverty-stricken Jane Austen and her sister and mother after her father died…oh, wait.
Contactmusic.com has kicked into a veritable fanboy and fangirl frenzy today with blurbs about both Matthew Macfadyen and Keira Knightley. The MM article dredges up the tired old battle-of-the-Darcys thing, which we are perfectly comfortable in assuming both gentlemen find as stupendously inane as we do.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE star MATTHEW MacFADYEN refused to watch COLIN FIRTH’s classic TV performance as dashing hero MR DARCY, because he was determined to make the character his own.
Firth, who starred in the 1995 British TV series of JANE AUSTEN’s romantic tale, is often hailed as the ultimate Darcy, and MacFadyen knows he has a lot to live up to.
He says, “I hadn’t seen the TV series when I was given the part so I decided not to watch it in case it influenced my own performance.
“I know that everyone loved Colin’s portrayal and that kind of comparison is going to be hard to live with.
“So the moment some of the audience see me on screen as Mr Darcy, they’re going to say,’Oh, that’s not him.’”
Ya think?
On the distaff side, we discover the True Hollywood Story of…Keira’s Haircut.
British actress KEIRA KNIGHTLEY suffered a hair nightmare when constant styling for a quick succession of roles damaged her locks beyond repair.
The 20-year-old star had to opt for a close-cropped style when her hair started falling out in horrifying handfuls, but she is desperate to have flowing long hair once again.
She recalls, “When I was working on PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, I had to go over to have my hair looked at for another role. I’d been really busy filming, so my agent filled them in that my hair had been peroxided and was generally very weak.
“I was in the make-up chair at 4am. I was so tired I actually fell asleep, and two hours later I woke up to see all these perming curlers fastened to my head. My hair felt totally hideous, like the most brittle straw.
“By the time it I had got home and saw my mum, the whole of my fringe just dropped off into my lap. They then needed to do a colour-test on my hair. They took one strand and the whole hair just shrivelled up and disappeared.
“It needed completely cutting off. What I really want now is long hair.”
It is our Professional Opinion (the Editrix, in a former life, was a Licensed Cosmetologist and is at all times a Renaissance Woman) that perm on top of excessive lightening will certainly cause breakage, and at that point cutting it off and moving on is the best thing to do–but what were those goobers thinking, perming it when she was in the middle of a movie?!? Bizarre! We suppose that they were shooting for the Big Hair look for DOMINO. (We miss Big Hair. Really. Our hair is naturally on the, erm, puffy side.)
Tune in tomorrow for Desperate Spinsters, same bat time, same bat channel! See how many more pop culture metaphors the Editrix can throw in!
